September 16, 201411 yr comment_5625402 A much better worker in 1993-95 than I ever would have ever expected held back only by the shittiness of the booking. His aggressive, stiff, shoot style matwork was a sight to behold, and in a promotion where work was more important he might have had a nice resume from that period. He also has the Ultimo Guerrero match from 2004, which I'm yet to review but is one of the best title matches of this century and hands down the best thing Ultimo Guerrero has ever been in. But his forte is really brawling. He may be one of the best lucha brawlers of all-time. I can't say I like the garbagy crap in a lot of his matches, but the visuals he creates are outstanding. Definitely a guy who needs to be looked at.
September 17, 201411 yr comment_5625759 OJ, could you (or anyone I'm all ears) recommend maybe 5-10 LA Park matches from the 2000s as a starting off point? I've seen the bloodbath with Santo from Monterrey and i'll definitely check out the Ultimo Guerrero match. What else should I look into? I'm aware of the feud with Wagner Jr but what are the standout matches? I know you said he excelled in brawls but are their any title matches you'd recommend in addition to the UG match? I haven't followed lucha post 2002 at all and want to fix that. Park is the guy I'm most looking forward to diving into.
September 17, 201411 yr comment_5625767 I still have a ton of Parka to see but part of me wished he ended up in 1998 WWF instead of WCW somehow. The brawls he could have had that year.
September 17, 201411 yr comment_5625806 elliot, Dr Wagner Jr vs. La Par-k, TXT 5/11/13 El Mesias vs. LA Par-K, AAA 6/18/11 El Mesias vs. LA Par-K, AAA 12/11/10 LA Park vs El Dandy, ENESMA 10/15/04
September 17, 201411 yr comment_5625821 Thanks OJ! Matt, I know you said 98, but now I wish somehow La Parka was brought in (as La Parka) to be Undertaker's little brother instead of Kane. Parka was one of the absolute favorite WCW guys for my casual fan friends back in high school. Really I would say only Goldberg was more positively talked about. I feel like if he had been presented somewhat credibly by WCW he could have been a huge star in the States.
September 17, 201411 yr comment_5625893 Thanks OJ! Matt, I know you said 98, but now I wish somehow La Parka was brought in (as La Parka) to be Undertaker's little brother instead of Kane. Parka was one of the absolute favorite WCW guys for my casual fan friends back in high school. Really I would say only Goldberg was more positively talked about. I feel like if he had been presented somewhat credibly by WCW he could have been a huge star in the States. genuinely agree with this, they missed out on big merchandising potential with this guy heck, on marvel vs. capcom 3 tournament broadcasts, the most popular commentator always calls taskmaster "la parka" because of the skull mask. people still remember him!
September 29, 201410 yr comment_5629508 Watched the 5/11/13 match vs Dr Wagner Jr from TXT that OJ recommended. I haven't seen any of the matches in their feud I just know that its a major feud and to hope for a mask vs mask match one day for the sake of the world. Well now I will go back and watch every singles and 6 man these guys have been involved in. This was a tremendous match. The match starts with Park posing behind a chair that has a flaming Dr Wagner Jr T-Shirt on it and I'm instantly in love with the match. Park kicks Wagner Jr's ass all over the arena. Bloodying him with chairs and eventually taking the fall. 2nd Fall starts with more of the same; Park kicking the crap out of Wagner Jr. Finally Park makes a mistake and Wagner Jr hits a big counter move (spear through a bunch of chairs) that would typically be the finish in a lo to of 2nd fall lucha matches. But Wagner Jr continues to kick the shit out of Park in a long 2nd fall. Park is a bloody mess going into the 3rd fall with his mask ripped to all hell. 3rd Fall is excellent with both guys pushing each other to the limit, hitting big moves with bloody faces and ripped masks. I would highly recommend this to people who like brawling, ecw style matches. Also watched LA Park vs El Mesias from 12/11/10 (I think, no date on the youtube links but it said Guerra de Titanes 2010 so correct me if i'm wrong) and that was also great. Another brawl but more fast paced in the ring brawling than the crazy all over the place Wagner Jr match. I'd never seen Mesias before and he looked really good. He hit some terrific dives and really pushed Park to the limit. Park is bleeding with a ripped mask by the end of this and just can't figure out a way to beat Mesias so he kicks him in the nuts and beats the crap out of him with a chair. Really looking forward to the mask vs hair match. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Damn, I tried to watch the Mask vs Hair match with Mesias but the youtube video keeps stopping/skipping. Can't seem to find it on dailymotion either. OJ, whats the date on the Ultimo Guerrero match? Is it 9/17? I watched the El Dandy match but I was pretty disappointed by it. I've been watching the El Dandy set recently and I'm literally right in the middle of the Angel Azteca feud. It was a pretty big shock to jump from that to old man El Dandy. I was impressed by Park in the match though. I will rewatch the match when I get to it on the Dandy set and maybe I'll have a higher opinion of it. Or at least my expectations will be more realistic. I must say I loved the Wagner Jr and first Mesias match I watched. Great stuff.
September 29, 201410 yr comment_5629518 This is the Ultimo Guerrero match:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95WsMehcfQ
September 29, 201410 yr comment_5629528 Wow that is a fucking awesome match! Park has some of the best highspots in wrestling and he does a really good job of setting up Ultimo Guerrero to hit his spots in this. This had some really spectacular moments in it. Great great great match. Really awesome to see a title match of this caliber after the two brawls I watched earlier.
September 29, 201410 yr comment_5629548 Just watched that the other day, and while it had some rough patches I still thought it was really great.
October 2, 201410 yr Author comment_5630819 I love 2000's brawling LA Park. I loved him in WCW. What I need is 90's lucha suggestions.
October 3, 201410 yr comment_5630869 He'll be on my list somewhere. Not High End Luchador Ranking BUT Some Where In THE Bottom half.
October 3, 201410 yr comment_5630920 I love 2000's brawling LA Park. I loved him in WCW. What I need is 90's lucha suggestions. He's looked great in the AAA trios matches I've watched in the Satanico thread. There is a long La Parka vs Psicosis match from 12/19/95 Promo Azteca on youtube that was so disappointing. Psicosis dominated most of the first two falls and it just wasn't very interesting. A lot of emphasis on the second's and the biggest pop of the match was probably referee shennanigans. I figured if nothing else this would be a really wild and exciting all over the place brawl with both guys hitting crazy dives and taking insane bumps. And really it had all of that but it just felt way too long. When I finish watching all the Satanico stuff I can I'm planning on looking at La Parka and Black Terry and hopefully I'll find some cool stuff. Like I said though, he really shines in the trios matches I watched.
October 3, 201410 yr comment_5630952 LA Park and Shocker © vs. Los Guerreros Del Infierno - CMLL March 19, 2004 - Homenaje a Dos Leyendas
October 3, 201410 yr comment_5630953 The Wagner Jr. and Mesias brawls are some of my favorites from this decade. I haven't seen anything approaching that stuff from earlier in his career so definitely keen on finding some others. Ultimo Guerrero match from '04 just didn't resonate
October 3, 201410 yr comment_5631010 He wasn't that type of worker early in his career. In his original AAA run he was a comedy worker who could go. He'll pop up with strong performances in trios matches, but it wasn't until that Monterrey Santo brawl in 2001 that we really saw the bloody side of La Parka. I'll take a title match over a brawl six days a week and twice on Sundays, so I would recommend people watch the first Parka/Lizmark match from Triplemania. AAA booking decimates the feud thereafter, but the first match is sensational (in my view at least, opinion was slightly divided in the yearbook feedback.)
April 24, 201510 yr comment_5665832 His 2004 resurgance is one of the best "is this guy washed up?" to "holy shit, what a revival!" Maybe Ultimo Guerrero post mask match with Atlantis comes close but that is also still in progress. LA Park introduced the tope into arm drag as a big spot in CMLL in 2004, which was quickly replicated by a lot of wrestlers including the original Mistico. Meltzer claimed Mistico invented this (and also argued that it is a stupid move - it's not) but it was Park in 2004 doing it throughout the second half of the year. His 2004 revival has: 4/18 vs. Ultimo Guerrero (Guadalajara) 4/28 vs. El Hijo del Santo (Juster Promotions) numerous trios matches from 7/30/04 - 11/05/04 that are all solid to good As OJ mentioned above, his AAA 1993-1995 work holds up better than a lot of the AAA work from that time period. I really like his comedy performance in the 6/18/95 Atomicos match where he teams with Psicosis, Fuerza, and Pentagon Jr. to perform a four-man comedy show. He will make my top 100, location TBD.
May 8, 201510 yr comment_5667659 How many brawlers in history are better than Park? Yes he can absolutely stink it up, or ruin a match with over reliance on comedy, but when it comes to the essence of lucha brawls - wild, out of control spectacles, with blood, mask ripping, crazy dives, near fights with fans, guys taking lunatic bumps into chairs, et. - I don't know if anyone in history has been better. I watched a bunch of stuff this week, including the Santo brawl from Monterrey and that is right there with the Wagner, Mesias, phony Parka fights as an all time classic fight. What's amazing is that Park was also one of the most exciting/fun guys to watch in WCW (where he actually got over to a degree), was better than I expected in early AAA, and has matches like the Dandy, Ultimo Guerrero and Lizmark ones that are also absolutely excellent matches, without being brawls at all. His inconsistency will hurt him, but his versatility, dynamism, and peak performances have now moved him into the "lock" category for my top 100. As an aside has anyone in wrestling ever taken a tope better than Park, both in terms of leaning into the impact, and wildly flying backwards into a sea of fans/chairs?
May 8, 201510 yr Author comment_5667660 I know and love post 2000 Park! One of my all-time favourites. I need some recommendations for AAA and WCW stuff to watch.
May 17, 201510 yr comment_5668470 Grimmas, when I was going through all the Satanico matches I could find this one stood out as an example of La Parka looking awesome: La Parka/Satanico/Fuerza vs Lizmark/Sagrada/Volador 2/15/94 There's a really long Parka vs Psicosis match from 95 or 96 on youtube that I loved in 2001 and absolutely hated when I watched it for the GWE project. I can't seem to find it right now. What is the best LA Park vs Fake La Parka match?
May 17, 201510 yr comment_5668512 Grimmas, when I was going through all the Satanico matches I could find this one stood out as an example of La Parka looking awesome: La Parka/Satanico/Fuerza vs Lizmark/Sagrada/Volador 2/15/94 There's a really long Parka vs Psicosis match from 95 or 96 on youtube that I loved in 2001 and absolutely hated when I watched it for the GWE project. I can't seem to find it right now. What is the best LA Park vs Fake La Parka match? I haven't rewatched to confirm, but this may be the one --
May 29, 201510 yr Author comment_5670982 Doing a podcast on LA Park focussing on his brawls, besides the Wagner match what would be the 3-5 you would choose. One of the Mesias ones, the Santo one? There is a good Super Parka one. Any thoughts?
May 29, 201510 yr comment_5671009 Both the Mesias brawls are incredible, MOTYC. Santo one was pretty good offhand but I don't remember much.
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